1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to recycling apparatus, and in particular, to an apparatus for cutting the remnant paper from nearly-empty paper rolls.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
It is often desired to remove the remnant paper from nearly-empty paper rolls, i.e., so-called "butt rolls". Heretofore, various manual methods have been employed to remove the remnant paper from the rolls such as knives or hand-held circular saws that longitudinally cut the paper from the rolls, separating the cardboard cores of the rolls for reuse and the paper for subsequent recycling. Other apparatus are known that place the cardboard cores on a metal mandrel and utilize a knife that cuts through the remnant paper toward the mandrel. However, such methods are inefficient and slow, and care must be taken not to cut into the cardboard cores while cutting the remnant paper from the cores.
It is therefore desirable to have an apparatus that can cut the remnant paper from paper butt rolls with higher throughput than heretofore known, and that automatically adjusts its cutting depth to match the amount of remnant paper on each butt roll.
A preliminary patentability search in Class 83, subclasses 924, produced the following patents, some of which may be relevant to the present invention: Murray, U.S. Pat. No. 1,640,090, issued Aug. 23, 1927; St. Peter, U.S. Pat. No. 1,838,011, issued Dec. 22, 1931; Smith et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,542, issued Sep. 20, 1971; Bayley, U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,302, issued Apr. 12, 1966; McCay et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,575, issued Mar. 26, 1985; and Hall, U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,906, issued Sep. 12, 1989. None of these patents disclose or suggest the present invention.